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Economic Times
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Economic Times
Wildest moments and myths of Ozzy Osbourne, the man who made madness mainstream
Ozzy Osbourne's life blurred fact and folklore from bat bites to bizarre benders the Prince of Darkness redefined what it meant to be a rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary frontman of Black Sabbath and the self-styled 'Prince of Darkness,' has died at the age of 76. Known as much for his music as for his jaw-dropping antics, Osbourne leaves behind a legacy few in the music world could match, or tributes pour in from across the globe, fans are also remembering the outrageous and often unbelievable episodes that defined Ozzy's larger-than-life persona. From biting the heads off animals to urinating on national monuments, Osbourne pushed the boundaries of fame and rebellion, and rock 'n' roll a look at some of the wildest moments and reported myths from the man who lived every day as if it were his last:During a concert in Des Moines in January 1982, Iowa, Osbourne infamously bit the head off what he thought was a rubber bat thrown on stage. It turned out to be real and dead. He was rushed to the hospital for rabies shots, but the moment became immortalized in rock folklore. Months before the bat, Osbourne shocked record executives by biting the head off a live dove during a meeting with CBS Records. The act was meant to get attention, and it did, along with immediate ejection from the building. Ozzy was drunk and wearing Sharon Osbourne's dress when he urinated on a cenotaph near the Alamo in San Antonio in 1982. He was arrested and banned from performing in the city for 10 years. Amid a drug-fueled mental breakdown in 1989, Ozzy tried to strangle his wife Sharon. She survived and later dropped the charges, but the incident sent him to rehab. Sharon later said, 'It wasn't Ozzy. It was the drugs. I still believe that.'While visiting the Dachau camp in Germany, a drunk Ozzy reportedly caused such a disturbance that security threw him out, possibly the only person in history to be ejected from a Holocaust memorial the height of MTV's The Osbournes fame in the early 2000s, Ozzy was reportedly taking as many as 42 prescription pills daily, including 25 Vicodin. Yet he somehow remained standing, physically, if not always on drugs, Ozzy climbed on top of an aerial tramway car stalled 1,000 feet in the air and spread his arms wide, pretending to surf. It's a miracle he didn't fall to his a drunken rampage, Ozzy once shot the family's chickens with a shotgun, then burned the coop, while throwing live ammo into the fire for good worried about smuggling cocaine through customs, Ozzy simply handed his supply to flight attendants, who snorted it with him during the up to an intruder in his home, Ozzy, who sleeps nude, chased the man out of the house in full buff. It worked. The robber ran. Despite, or perhaps because of his excesses, Ozzy Osbourne became a symbol of unapologetic, unrelenting rock and roll. He was chaos wrapped in leather, a walking headline, and a survivor of a lifestyle that claimed countless others. Through it all, he remained fiercely loved. He leaves behind Sharon, their children, and grandchildren, along with millions of fans and decades of music.
Los Angeles Times
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Ozzy Osbourne death: Black Sabbath singer dies at 76
Ozzy Osbourne, the storied Black Sabbath lead singer known as much for his excesses and bizarre onstage antics as his pioneering heavy metal music, has died in London. Bedeviled by health issues for years, Osbourne died Tuesday morning, his family announced, according to the Associated Press. He was 76. Osbourne announced in early 2020 that he'd been diagnosed nearly a year earlier with Parkinson's disease, just the latest but by far the most serious ailment that over his career had repeatedly forced him to cancel public appearances, delay releasing new material and scrap concerts, including his own retirement tour Advertisement The heavy metal pioneer's career spanned more than four decades as both a member of Black Sabbath and a solo artist, then as the maestro behind the annual Ozzfest that featured him — some of the time — alongside upcoming acts. It didn't seem to bother Osbourne that he was largely disregarded by critics: Fans cheered him wildly, he sold more than 100 million records as the leader of Black Sabbath and as a solo artist, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with his bandmates in 2006. Guided by his wife, Sharon, who was his manager and steadying force, Osbourne reinvented himself in the 1990s as an elder statesman of heavy metal. The musician also found late-in-life notoriety through his family's popular MTV reality series, 'The Osbournes,' where he played himself — the mumbling, nearly comatose patriarch of a fully dysfunctional family. 'People wonder why they can't understand him,' his wife told GQ magazine. 'Well, you'd be hard to understand too if you drank two vats of coffee, two vats of wine and took 25 Vicodin a day.' Advertisement Osbourne didn't disagree, 'If anyone has lived the debauched rock 'n' roll lifestyle,' Osbourne admitted. 'I suppose it's me.' Music What doesn't kill Ozzy Osbourne makes him ... even Ozzier Thanks to a hit single with Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne is in the midst of a career resurgence, all while he battles Parkinson's disease, among myriad infirmities. Born John Michael Osbourne on Dec. 3, 1948, the youngest of four children, Osbourne was raised in a working-class neighborhood in Birmingham, England. His mother worked in a factory; his father worked nights as a toolmaker. Osbourne said his parents were poor and had few expectations their son would amount to much. 'All I ever wanted to do was to do something good so that my parents could be proud of me,' he told GQ. 'I never received any encouragement.' Advertisement He had an early interest in theater, performing in school plays. But when he first heard the Beatles, he knew he wanted to be a musician. Alongside guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, Osbourne emerged as the voice and face of Black Sabbath in 1969. The group was menacing and dark. But it was credited with introducing the basics of heavy metal, including the aggressive vocal wail, bass-heavy riffs, demonic subject matter and a general spirit of rebelliousness, according to former Times music critic Richard Cromelin. Black Sabbath released its self-titled first record on a Friday the 13th in February 1970, the date hardly a coincidence. It went platinum in England and the U.S. Dismissed or simply ignored by critics, it nonetheless became required listening in college dorm rooms across the nation. The band went on to release more than a dozen studio albums, many that coincided with world tours. Weary of his lead singer's erratic behavior, Iommi had Osbourne fired from the band in 1979 as he descended in a haze of alcohol and drugs. For years other singers — from Ronnie James Dio to Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan — fronted Black Sabbath. Osbourne reunited with various iterations periodically and, in 2006, the band performed at its Hall of Fame induction. Osbourne married Sharon Arden, the daughter of the band's manager Don Arden, in 1982 and she took over managing his career. The couple launched OZZfest in 1996 and the touring festival became the first dedicated to hard rock music and emerging heavy metal artists. Osbourne headlined the inaugural shows in Phoenix and Devore, Calif., and donated a portion of the proceeds to charities across the country. Advertisement Osbourne released his first solo record, 'The Blizzard of Ozz,' in 1980 and it also went platinum. More solo records followed and in 1985 he performed at the Live Aid famine relief concert at Wembley Stadium in London alongside Queen, David Bowie, Madonna and the Who. His 12th album, 'Ordinary Man,' was released in 2020 to generally positive reviews and charted quickly His sometimes alarming antics onstage became part of the group's allure but also proved controversial. In 1982, Osbourne reportedly bit the head off a dead bat onstage during an Iowa concert. He already had a history of animal decapitations after he reportedly bit the head off a live dove during a meeting with record company executives. The move prompted Vets Auditorium in Des Moines to prohibit concert performers from using or presenting live animals onstage without the consent of management, according to the Des Moines Register. He also was dragged into court over the lyrics of one of his songs, 'Suicide Solution' — a track on 'Blizzard of Ozz.' He was accused in a 1986 civil suit of causing the deaths of two teenagers who allegedly committed suicide after listening to the song. Osbourne said later that the song was inspired by the alcohol-related death of AC/DC lyricist Bon Scott in 1980, though the actual songwriter, Bob Daisley, said he was actually thinking of Osbourne when he wrote the lyrics. In 1989, Osbourne performed at the Moscow Peace Festival, the first major rock concert in what then was the Soviet Union by Western artists. The musician released five more records in the 1990s and his 1993 song 'I Don't Want to Change the World' earned him his first Grammy Award for metal performance. Advertisement Ozzy Osbourne with Black Sabbath's 2014 Grammy Award for best metal performance. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Never fully untangled from his history of addiction and substance abuse, Osbourne's foggy state of mind was on full display to global audiences during his family's MTV reality series. The unscripted show ran for four seasons and during its run, Osbourne signed a $10-million renewal deal with MTV, met President George W. Bush at a Washington dinner, performed at Buckingham Palace and shook hands with Queen Elizabeth II. Osbourne later said that his unshakable stupor was due to his use of Valium and a host of other powerful narcotics prescribed by a Beverly Hills physician under investigation for overprescribing drugs to celebrity patients. 'I was wiped out on pills,' Osbourne told The Times in 2003. 'I couldn't talk. I couldn't walk. I could barely stand up. I was lumbering about like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. It got to the point where I was scared to close my eyes at night — afraid I might not wake up.' Prescription records obtained during the investigation showed Osbourne was taking more than 40 pills a day, a regimen that included opiates, tranquilizers, amphetamines, antidepressants and an antipsychotic. The day before a New Year's Eve concert in 2018 at the Forum, Osbourne said he'd been free of drugs, alcohol and even tobacco for more than four years. Advertisement 'I mean, I have grandchildren now and I'm 70 years old, and I don't want to be found dead in a hotel room somewhere,' he told the Pasadena Star News. Still, his health declined. He was diagnosed in 2019 with a severe upper-respiratory infection, which his doctors felt could develop into pneumonia given the physicality of his live performances and an extensive travel schedule throughout Europe in harsh winter conditions. He canceled his farewell tour and then canceled even more shows on his relaunched farewell tour before being hospitalized for complications from the flu. Months later he postponed more shows after sustaining an undisclosed injury that required surgery, after falling at his home. The fall had aggravated an injury sustained in a near-fatal 2003 ATV accident. In an interview with Robin Roberts for 'Good Morning America' in 2020, Osbourne speculated that the fall may have been an early sign of Parkinson's, a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no cure. Osbourne said the diagnosis actually helped bring his family closer together, though he was left with the thought that he now was the only one in the family not working. Worries aside, the Osbournes were ranked by Forbes in 2018 among the richest couples in England, with a net worth in excess of $200 million. 'Coming from a working-class background, I hate to let people down. I hate to not do my job,' Osbourne told Roberts. 'And so when I see my wife goin' to work, my kids goin' to work, everybody's doing — tryin' to be helpful to me, that gets me down because I can't contribute to my family, you know.' Advertisement But work he did, trudging back to the studio to begin recording 'Ordinary Man.' Osbourne is survived by his wife and their three children, Aimee, Kelly and Jack Osbourne, and numerous grandchildren. He also is survived by three children from a previous marriage: Jessica, Louis and Elliot. Staff writer Steve Marble contributed to this story
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Aaron Phypers accuses Denise Richards of Vicodin addiction, having ‘ongoing' affair in explosive letter
Aaron Phypers is accusing his estranged wife, Denise Richards, of being addicted to pain medication Vicodin and having an 'ongoing' affair with another man, after she levelled shocking abuse allegations against him. In an explosive letter to friends and family obtained by Page Six from Phypers, he claims Richards needs an 'intervention' for her alleged drug addiction that has affected their 14-year-old daughter, Eloise. 'For nearly a decade, she has struggled with an addiction to Vicodin (which she jokingly calls 'Vitamin D' or 'white chestnuts'), mixed with Adderall and tequila,' he claims. 'Some of you know this has been an issue for over 20 years. She's no longer eating real meals, and I've witnessed her pass out from substances – putting herself and others in danger, including while driving with our daughter.' He also claims Richards has been involved in an affair, which he learned about earlier this year. 'She begged me not to leave, saying it was nothing and that she only loved me,' Phypers alleges in the letter. 'Then, she denied it all — even the explicit messages I found. Despite her promise to stop, more lies and shocking evidence emerged.' Phypers further claims that she's the one who physically abused him on July 4 — their date of separation in his divorce filing. 'On July 4th, a simple act — ordering food for our daughter Eloise — led to an unthinkable discovery. Denise accused me of using her card, and in the confusion, my phone disappeared,' he claims. 'After searching for over 20 hours and being physically attacked when I asked for it back, I eventually found it smashed inside a trash bag, hidden beneath rotting garbage and litter. When I asked why, she denied it completely. That same night, she texted me saying she was filing for divorce.' Phypers claims he and his parents have since been 'mistreated' after he filed for divorce first. 'I've experienced stalking (an AirTag placed on my car), been denied access to my personal belongings, and watched my elderly parents become frightened and mistreated — simply because they supported me and helped take care of Denise's animals, her daughter, and our home,' he claims in the letter. 'This isn't just a relationship breaking down. It's a cry for help,' he alleges, asking for prayers for Richards. He also doubled down on his previous denial of Richards' allegations of abuse, claiming, 'I have never, ever physically harmed my wife, and I did not give her a black eye. I have only ever stepped in to protect her or others — including separating her from physically attacking her daughter — always coming from a place of care and concern.' Page Six has reached out to Richards for comment but did not hear back. Richards, 54, was granted a restraining order against Phypers, 52, last Wednesday. In court documents obtained by Page Six, she shared photos of her bruised face, claiming Phypers had abused her. 'Throughout our relationship, Aaron would frequently violently choke me, violently squeeze my head with both hands, tightly squeeze my arms, violently slap me in my face and head, aggressively slam my head into the bathroom towel rack,' Richards alleged. She claimed Phypers threatened to kill her and himself if she ever reported him to the cops. She also referenced their big blowout fight on July 4, claiming he was the aggressor. Richards alleged he became 'enraged' after she told him that he and his family had to move out of their marital home. 'Over the course of nearly two hours, Aaron repeatedly got within two inches of my face and screamed at me degrading profanities, including calling me a 'c**t wh**e' and a 'piece of sh*t' and screaming at me, 'Nobody likes you',' she alleged in the court documents. 'Aaron repeatedly grabbed my left arm tightly in an aggressive manner. I told Aaron repeatedly that he needed to stay away from me and that he was going to hurt me.' Phypers — who was previously caught on camera telling Richards he would 'crush' her hand in a resurfaced The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills scene — denied Richards' allegations shortly after the filing, calling them 'harmful and baseless'. A source close to Phypers blamed the shocking picture of her black eye from her restraining order filing on her having an alleged 'alcohol problem'. 'That photo was taken in winter 2022, and the fact is she was drunk at the time and fell coming up the steps to Aaron's [since-closed medical] clinic, Q360,' the insider claimed to the Daily Mail. Phypers filed for divorce from Richards earlier this month, listing 'irreconcilable differences' as the reason for their split.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Aaron Phypers accuses Denise Richards of addiction, affair amid turmoil over divorce, report says
Aaron Phypers has accused estranged wife Denise Richards of having an addiction to the painkiller Vicodin and an 'ongoing' affair, according to Page Six, which obtained a letter written by Phypers that reportedly contains the allegations. The allegations come in the wake of Phypers filing for divorce from 'The Bold and the Beautiful' actor on July 7 and Richards obtaining a temporary restraining order against him early last week. The letter, said to be addressed to friends and family, alleges that the former Real Housewife is addicted to Vicodin and Adderall and combines the drugs with tequila. He also said that he and his parents have been mistreated since his divorce filing. 'This isn't just a relationship breaking down. It's a cry for help,' he alleges, per Page Six, and asks for prayers for Richards. A representative for Richards didn't respond immediately to The Times' request for comment. 'Some of you know this has been an issue for over 20 years. She's no longer eating real meals, and I've witnessed her pass out from substances — putting herself and others in danger, including while driving with our daughter,' Phypers wrote. He also claimed he had 'never, ever' physically harmed Richards, despite her allegations in last week's restraining order application. And, he wrote, per Page Six, that he found evidence earlier this year that she was having an affair. He said Richards denied having an affair, despite alleged 'explicit messages' he said he had discovered. Richards' allegations in her restraining order request were more dramatic. 'Throughout our relationship, Aaron would frequently violently choke me, violently squeeze my head with both hands, tightly squeeze my arms, violently slap me in my face and head, aggressively slam my head into the bathroom towel rack, threaten to kill me, hold me down with his knee on my back to the point where I would have to plead with him to get off me so that he would not kill me,' she alleged in her filing. She included photos of herself with a black eye and alleged Phypers regularly called her profane and demeaning names and periodically threatened to kill her or himself. The temporary stay-away order was granted immediately, with a hearing scheduled for Aug. 8 to make the restraining order permanent. Richards adopted daughter Eloise, now 14, as an infant in 2011; she and Phypers started dating in 2017 and married in September 2018, a month after his divorce from Nicollette Sheridan was final. Richards shares two adult daughters, Sam and Lola, with ex-husband Charlie Sheen. Phypers' legal slate is filling up lately. In addition to his divorce filing and Richards' restraining order, he was sued in January for alleged fraud linked to verbal claims he made about the efficacy of a stem-cell treatment available at his Malibu wellness center. The lawsuit was brought by the husband of a woman who died from cancer after Phypers allegedly told her in 2023, according to People, that she would be cured, or at least much improved, by his $126,000 treatment.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Vans Warped Tour, the original punk rock circus, returns to Long Beach
Sublime's drummer Bud Gaugh says his most memorable moment at the first Warped Tour in 1995 was when he broke his ribs riding a BMX bike on a half-pipe during their stop in Houston, an incident, he says, later led to his arrest in Florida. 'I got arrested because [Warped Tour founder] Kevin Lyman wouldn't let me go see a doctor,' Gaugh jokingly told The Times . 'I was having a hard time breathing, I could not sleep. So, at the Orlando show that we were playing at, I found a girl whose mom was a nurse and she took me home and we raided the medicine cabinet, and I got some Vicodin and some other things to help me sleep. … Unfortunately I was arrested in the parking lot returning with those drugs in zero-tolerant Florida.' Gaugh was bailed out, and after being on the road for two weeks with broken ribs, Gaugh finally received proper treatment in Massachusetts. 'That was an amazing memory,' he says. This month, Gaugh returns with Sublime to the Vans Warped Tour for the festival's 30th anniversary, playing with late singer Bradley Nowell's son Jakob on vocals. Sublime was recently revealed to be one of the teased secret bands slated to play the shows in their hometown of Long Beach. Long Beach will be one of the first cities to hear their new song, 'Ensenada,' live. 'Thirty years later — I can't even believe I'm saying that — 30 years later and now we get to do it with Jakob, this is insane … and I just can't wait for Jakob to experience it, we get to live vicariously through his emotions as well as our own, it's incredible, it's such an amazing feeling, I'm such a proud uncle.' After a six-year hiatus, the Vans festival is being rebooted in partnership with live events production company Insomniac for a three-city tour in Washington, D.C., Long Beach and Orlando. The Long Beach shows take place at the Shoreline Waterfront on July 26 and 27 and includes an eclectic variety of heavyweight acts such as Pennywise, Sublime, 311, Ice-T, Fishbone, All-American Rejects, the Vandals and more. The festival is also featuring its classic extreme sports showcase of skateboarding and BMX stunts, along with art displays, vendors, the 'Gritty Garage' lounge dedicated to uplifting female musicians and an official Vans Warped Tour Museum pop-up celebrating the festival's 30-year legacy. 'Warped Tour is in my heart, I did a lot of brands. I had Mayhem, Taste of Chaos, I had probably like 40 different branded things, those were more business,' Lyman tells The Times. 'If you're going to come back at my age now — I'm 64 and I've been in the music business 45 years, going back to the Goldenvoice days — you're going to do something from the heart.' Lyman, who is also an associate professor at USC, had been itching to bring back Warped Tour, and the encouragement to revive it largely came from Insomniac founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella. Rotella says that for years, he was 'bugging' Lyman to consider it, and even though Insomniac had previous opportunities to produce other rock events, Pasquale had his sights set on Warped Tour. 'The reason why I went out and asked Kevin is because I knew that there was lots of interest. Everyone wants to be involved with a special event like Warped Tour; it's really in line with what we do,' Rotella says . 'Not only is there a huge crossover with attendees, but I love — we love as a company — community-driven events, and I don't believe that the other brands that are out there, even ones Kevin has been involved with, have as strong a community behind it.' Insomniac is better known for producing electronic dance music festivals such as Electric Daisy Music Carnival, Hard Summer Music Festival and Beyond Wonderland among others, but Rotella is no stranger to the punk rock world that Warped Tour is rooted in. When Rotella was a teenager, he was a surfer and came up in the skateboard and surf communities in L.A., which he says was full of punk rockers. For him, working on Warped Tour is simply a return to a scene and community that's always been embedded in his background. 'I was part of a lot of different communities — graffiti, skateboarding, surfing … I appreciate so many different kinds of art. I love the culture and community behind these different scenes … it's great to be able to knock those walls down and bring people together, expose people to different things and it's a lot of fun. I think Warped Tour does that well.' When Lyman started the Warped Tour in 1995, he had already been a promoter and booker in L.A. for years, initially working for the legendary Gary Tovar, founder of Goldenvoice — the company that puts on festivals such as Coachella, Cruel World and Stagecoach. The inspiration for Warped Tour simply came from the diverse shows he was putting on every night in L.A., and the first festival lineup reflected that, featuring bands including No Doubt, Sublime, L7, Deftones, Face to Face, and many other ska, punk, indie and alternative acts. 'It goes back to 1995. I was working in the clubs 320 nights a year, listening to [bands] every night, I was working Roxy, Whisky, Palace, Palladium, a whole bunch of venues that don't exist [anymore], and watching the audiences and going, 'Why are we isolating them into segments? I think there's a lot more here in common,'' Lyman says. Despite being varied in genre, Warped Tour has always been known as a predominantly punk rock festival. Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge says that when his band first played Warped Tour in 1996, the lineup was mostly punk rock bands and he shared the stage with peers like Rancid, Descendents, Bad Religion and Social Distortion. 'It was like a full-on summer camp for degenerate punk rockers, if you will,' Dragge says. 'We'd done some festivals, we'd done some tours at that time, but nothing like wow, here's all your friends in the same place and eating at the same tables, barbecuing, drinking beers, hanging out, playing dice, playing poker, supporting each other onstage. There was nothing like it. I never went to summer camp, but I imagine this was the craziest summer camp of all time.' Dragge says that even though Pennywise is playing this year with a slew of younger bands across different genres — an experience he says differs from the old-school days of the Vans festival — Dragge constantly gets 'stoked' about seeing and discovering new bands in the scene, and he's excited to witness the fresh talent at this year's Warped Tour. 'It's inspiring, for me. It makes me feel like there's a future and hope for punk rock in general, it's not going away,' he says. Warped Tour has significantly evolved since its humble beginnings, becoming one of the longest-running music festivals in the world. Dragge says, 'Warped Tour deserves the ultimate respect of any festival on the planet' because of what it accomplished with its revolutionary idea to take a festival on wheels nationwide, creating a blueprint for other music festivals, which according to Dragge, is now copied by everyone. 'That's all Kevin's doing and he's going to go down in history as the greatest of all great operators for the biggest, craziest punk rock circus of all time that ran around this globe,' Dragge says.
